Starbucks Pours $25M Into Mobile Payment Start-Up Square: Hot Trends

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Popular searches on the Internet include Starbucks (SBUX) as the coffee chain will invest $25 million into Square, a mobile payment start-up.

As part of the deal, Starbucks will switch its processing of debit and credit card payments to Square. For the time being, the new processing won't impact customers. Starbucks does plan to incorporate other Square products in its stores, including one that allows payments to be taken just by getting the user's name.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz plans to join Square's board. Schultz said the Square deal will lower payment processing fees for Starbucks. He did not indicate which payment processor Starbucks was forgoing in favor of Square.

Square, developed by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, is two years old. It processes about $6 billion in transactions on an annualized basis.

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The Federal Aviation Administration is trending upon issuing a ban prohibiting aircraft from flying in opposite directions when arriving and departing from airports.

The move comes after a close call at Reagan National Airport in Washington on July 31, when a controller sent two flights in the direction of an incoming third flight due to a lapse in communication.

Though the new ban on two-way traffic would not have been expected to prevent the incident on July 31, FAA Chief Operating Officer David Grizzle said it is being put in place in order to take extra caution as the administration figures out how to improve.

Two-way, or opposite direction, traffic occurs, upon controller approval, for various reasons -- be it convenience, emergency, or otherwise. It typically refers to aircraft that arrives or departs opposite of what the predominant flow of traffic at the time is doing.

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Walt Disney (DIS) is another popular search. The company reported third-quarter profit that rose 24% from last year, boosted in part by the box office success of its film, The Avengers.

Walt Disney Chairman and CEO Robert Iger called the company's third-quarter results "the largest quarterly earnings in the history" of the company. The Avengers added to a turnaround in Disney's movie business; operating income in its movie business skyrocketed to $313 million from $49 million a year ago.

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The chatter on Main Street (a.k.a. Google, Yahoo! and other search sites) is always of interest to investors on Wall Street. Thus, each day, TheStreet compiles the stories that are trending on the Web, and highlights the news that could make stocks move.

-- Written by Brittany Umar.

Brittany joined TheStreet.com TV in November 2006 after completing a degree in Journalism and Media Studies at Rutgers College. Previously, Brittany interned at the local ABC affiliate in New York City WABC-TV 7 where she helped research and produce On Your Side, a popular consumer advocacy segment.